Gillings remarries; new bride heads California pharma

Dennis Gillings, co-founder of Durham-based clinical research organization Quintiles, has tied the knot. Gillings and Mireille Gingras were wed in Hawaii over the Labor Day weekend.

Quintiles did not have any official comment on the nuptials and would not provide details on what spokesman Phil Bridges calls a “private ceremony.”

Gingras is the president and CEO of San Diego-based HUYA Bioscience International, a company that touts itself as a leader in globalizing Chinese pharmaceutical innovation.

Gillings stepped down as CEO of Quintiles in April but still chairs the board. His replacement as CEO is longtime Accenture Ltd. executive Tom Pike.

Gillings’ divorce from former wife Joan Gillings was finalized in November 2011.

Chick-fil-A will be gone from the Duke University campus at the end of the academic year, but it doesn’t have anything to do with controversial comments made about gay marriage by the chicken chain’s CEO, Dan Cathy.

The West Union Building, where Chick-fil-A operates an eatery, will be undergoing renovations at the end of the academic year. After that, the building will no longer host chain restaurants.

Looks like Raleigh businessman Bob Luddy soon may be breaking ground for the fourth Thales Academy in Wake County, with this one to be in Rolesville.

The Wake Weekly reports that the Rolesville town planning board has approved a request for construction of a campus on 17 acres between Grand Rock Way and Storage Drive. The town board will hear the case later this month.

Site plans call for a 55,200-square-foot, two-story building housing just fewer than 500 students in grades 6-12.

Other Thales Academy private schools are in Wake Forest, Raleigh and Apex.

Piggybacking off its parent UNC Health Care, Rex Healthcare has expanded its use of Passport billing, a service by Passport Health Communications, Inc., headquartered in Franklin, Tenn.

Using Passport helps patients understand their medical bills better before going in for a procedure, instead of dealing with stacks of confusing paperwork afterward. Also, it gives a detailed breakdown of the insurance costs and what patients will be expected to pay out of pocket.

For Rex, Passport also helps with back-of-the office billing, making transactions easier on the hospital’s end.

The move could result in fewer bad debt write-offs and more revenue for the hospital. Health care analysts argue that a clearer understanding of a bill would result in patients being more likely to pay their share.

Rex Healthcare has also been named a “breastfeeding-friendly business” by the N.C. Breastfeeding Coalition.

The coalition gives the award to businesses that have made accommodations for breastfeeding mothers, including providing access to private rooms for breastfeeding and education about economic and health benefits.

The J.D. Beam Inc. construction company in Raleigh applied for a building permit in June to begin construction of the Alliance Center building, valued at $13.2 million, but vertical construction has yet to begin. Craig Davis Properties of Cary is a partner on the project.

The Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau has created a new website, specifically for the weekend of Sept. 14-16.

The site will not only allow users to see what’s happening, but it will also provide access to services and information they might need to plan their Durham visit.

“Travel decisions are far more spontaneous than they used to be, so we’re doing our best to ensure that potential visitors have access to the information they need to decide to make Durham their destination,” says Sam Poley, DCVB’s director of marketing and communications.

The Sept. 14-16 events include outdoor arts festival CenterFest, the Bull City Gridiron Classic, a football showdown between Duke University and North Carolina Central University, among others.

Local singing star Tift Merritt is putting on a show on Sept. 21 in Carrboro, presented by the town of Carrboro and the Cat’s Cradle.

While the show is free, vouchers have to be obtained, and the audience at the Carrboro Town Commons will be limited to 6,000 people. Also on the show are Megafaun and Mandoline Orange, according to The Chapel Hill News.

At the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting on Sept. 18, chamber board Chairman Jim Beck, president and CEO of TrustAtlantic Bank, will pass the gavel to his chair-elect, Jim Captain, the managing director and site head for Credit Suisse in Research Triangle Park.

And waiting on deck behind Captain will be this year’s board treasurer, Claude Demby, CEO of Noël Group, who will move into the chairman’s post for the 2013-14 fiscal year. Noël Group of Wake Forest is the parent company of plastic and foam product manufacturers Nomaco, Nomacorc and Spongex.

It’s been a rough year for the cattle business on the Triangle’s west side. As Siler City’s Clark Farms Inc. liquidates in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a cattle-leasing business in Durham now alleges that it was wrongly milked out of $240,000 by two dairy farmers in Alamance County.

James Holliday and William J. Holliday leased 140 dairy cows from DFH Leasing LLC in 2006, but the brothers allegedly stopped making the $4,000 monthly lease payments within a few months and eventually sold off the entire herd, according to a recent lawsuit by DFH. The company says it’s owed $560,000, after including several loans to the brothers, accrued interest and several other items in the lease agreement.

The company says it wasn’t able to sue earlier because a third partner in the Hollidays’ farm had been in personal bankruptcy, which halts collection efforts. That partner, William E. Holliday, the Hollidays’ father, exited bankruptcy in April, according to court records.

Meanwhile, feed dealer Ronald Charles and veterinarian Samuel Galphin also allege that the Hollidays owe them money – tens of thousands of dollars. As co-plaintiffs, they and DFH sued Aug. 27 in Wake County Superior Court; the case was transferred to North Carolina Business Court on Aug. 29.

James Holliday, whose family’s farm is near Snow Camp, declined to comment.